This was the first time I flew out of YKF (Waterloo International Airport), and it was quite interesting because there was no way to be at the wrong gate. It is a very convenient airport compared to Pearson or Buffalo, but the only thing it could benefit by is some public transit access. It seems that GRT is struggling with some more fundamental transit issues at the moment, though.
Landing in Vancouver, it was drizzling, and it had be about -26C in Waterloo, so I definitely felt that I had travelled. I got to take the train out to Kitsilano, which luckily had lots of space for my board bag, carry-on, and backpack. Arriving late, Chris stayed up to meet me, and then I happily fell asleep.
The next morning was catching up time with Chris and Jill, and after they headed off to work, I took my board on the bus, across on the amphibus to North Vancouver to catch a shuttle to Mount Seymour. This was where the 2013 GNCTR race was being held. The schedule this year was a bit different than last year where the TechEx day was on Thursday (missed it unfortunately), race day on Friday, competitor interaction day on Saturday (sadly not skiing), and headed home on Sunday. I had thought that if the setup was the same as at the Olympic Park in Calgary, that I would be able to snowboard for a bit and just pop by the race to watch the UW team race. The first thing I noticed when driving up to Mount Seymour was the constant uphill and my first thought was "yeah, I could totally bike this", somewhat jokingly. The way Mt. Seymour was setup though was that the tubing park was well removed from the skiing hill, so I just stuck around the competition. The snow was ridiculously soft, and would have pretty bad boarding conditions anyways.
When I arrived, the track was covered in fog, making it really hard to see what was going on at the starting line when standing at the finish. Due to the soft snow and surprisingly shallow run, many of the teams (including UW sadly) did not even make it to the finish line. Watching the teams race, I remembered the excitement that we felt last year in Calgary (minus the panic of getting injured by a super fast track with super fast snow). The themes were fun (classic Batman, elves, RRC were hunters, UW was Mario Kart) and the cheers were contagious thanks to Queens and Mac. Even though the UW team captains were a bit disappointed by their performance on the hill, they ended up getting first on their technical report and second in brake design.
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| About to push off |
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| The 2013 UW GNCTR team |
By the end of the race day, the sun broke out and it was really pretty.
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| Graveyard of toboggan crates |
Coming back to Vancouver, Chris and I met up with Jill and some of her friends from work to hang out downtown. The evening was nice and relaxed, just playing some games :)
The next morning was super early because I was off to Whistler. Chris had been sending me Groupon links for shuttle deals from Vancouver to Whistler. Luckily, there was one that did a pickup 4 blocks away, so heading out at 6am, I was finally on my way to Whistler after many years of wanting to go to Whistler.
It happened to be Australia Day, which meant there were a bunch of people with Australia-flag capes, and some that also were brave enough to wear only swimsuits on the hill. This added some liveliness to the hill.
Whistler was amazing though! After doing runs on both Blackcomb and Whistler, I think I'm in agreement that Blackcomb is nicer. And yes I went to the top of Blackcomb, and almost to the top of Whistler.
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| At the top of Blackcomb |
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| View from the top of Blackcomb |
Regardless, the runs were all really fun! I may have accidentally gone through a few scary-steep glade runs and a few double blacks with moguls, but that's part of the fun about discovering a new hill. I definitely found that you had to be on the watch for the signs because the runs split and rejoin a lot.
When on gondolas or chair lifts, it was common to find out where people were from. Surprisingly, lots of people knew about Waterloo since many people had friends/family that went to UW or worked at RIM/Blackberry. To one group of people who saw me a few times on the hill, I was hailed as "Hey Waterloo!". Interestingly enough too, I met a friend of a friend from Waterloo in EngSoc, so we hung out for a bit and since he was from the area, had great suggestions on where to go on the hill. By the recommendation of the GNCTR team the day before, I took the Peak-to-Peak gondola which has the longest free span between cable stay towers of 3.1km.
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| View from the Peak-to-Peak gondola |
Sadly, after a great day, it was time to pack up and head back to Vancouver. Chris and Jill made dinner which was awesome and also tasted even better after a full day of snowboarding.
Sunday was an exploration day around downtown Vancouver, Stanley Park (didn't get too far because the trolleys don't work off season), and a fun sushi place. After having two days of intense transit planning to get far out, it was nice to have a day of just walking around in rainy Vancouver (a nice break from the stupid cold of Waterloo at the time).
A very enjoyable trip, and I got to basically do everything that I had hoped to! I always enjoy the west coast, and even better when there's mountains and snowboarding :D